Bruce Almighty
Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a television field reporter for Eyewitness News at WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York, but desires to be the news anchorman. When he is passed over for promotion by his rival, Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), he becomes furious and aggressively criticizes the station on his first live report (culminating with him calling them "fuckers"), leading to his dismissal from the station. Followed by a series of misfortunes, Bruce complains that God is "the one that should be fired." Bruce later receives a message on his pager, directing him to an empty warehouse where God meets him. God offers to give Bruce his powers to prove that he is doing the job correctly. God tells Bruce that he cannot tell others he has God's powers, nor can he use the powers to alter free will. Bruce is initially jubilant with the powers, using them for personal gain, such as training his dog to use the toilet and sexually impressing his girlfriend Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston). Bruce also finds ways of using the powers to cause miraculous events to occur at otherwise mundane events that he covers, such as discovering Jimmy Hoffa's body or causing a meteor to harmlessly land near a cook-off, earning him his job back. Bruce then causes Evan to stutter and embarrass himself on-air, causing Evan to be fired in favor of Bruce as the new anchor. During a dinner to celebrate him getting anchor with Grace (who thought it would be a proposal), Bruce continues to hear voices in his head. He re-encounters God, who confronts Bruce on using his powers for personal gain and not helping people. He also explains that the voices are prayers, meant for God, that Bruce must deal with. Bruce creates a computerized email-like system to receive the prayers and respond, but finds that the influx is far too great for him to handle-- even though God has stated that Bruce is only receiving prayers from the Buffalo area-- and sets the program to automatically answer every prayer Yes. Bruce attends a party celebrating his promotion. When Grace arrives, she finds Bruce and his co-anchor Susan Ortega (Catherine Bell) kissing and quickly leaves. Bruce follows her, but she is heartbroken and will not listen to him. He tries to use his powers to convince her to stay but cannot influence her free will. As Bruce looks around, he realizes that the city has fallen into chaos due to his actions. Bruce returns to God, who explains that He can't solve all the problems and Bruce must figure out a way himself. Bruce then begins to solve his problems in life practically, such as helping a homeless man cross the street, training his dog normally, and allowing Evan to get his job back. Bruce returns to his computer system and goes about answering prayers as best he can. As he reads through them, he finds a prayer from Grace, wishing for Bruce's success and well-being. As he reads it, another prayer from Grace arrives, this one wishing not to be in love with Bruce anymore. Bruce is stunned and walks alone on a highway, asking God to take back his powers and letting his fate be in his hands. Bruce is suddenly struck by a truck, and regains consciousness in a white void. God appears and asks Bruce what he really wants; Bruce admits that he only wants to make sure Grace finds a man that would make her happy. God agrees and Bruce finds himself in the hospital, shortly after being recovered-- near miraculously-- by the doctors. Grace arrives and the two rekindle their relationship, with Bruce and Grace later becoming engaged. After his recovery, Bruce returns to his field reporting but takes more pleasure in the simple stories.